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26/04/2015

My New Normal

A phrase I've noticed I've been saying on more than one occasion recently is how I finally feel life here in America is 'my new normal', after months of feeling so different from everyone else, anxiety when driving to new places, homesickness, learning social hits and misses amongst many new people I realised life was feeling more real and settled and less like a movie set!We recently had our sixth set of visitors to Austin...yes sixth in 13 months! So we usually take this opportunity to visit somewhere new and with the children at school, my sister, her husband and I head off to downtown Austin and hired some bikes ready for our ride around Lady Bird Lake, which is a lush, urban path that meanders along the water's edge. During the ride we enjoyed so many great views, the weather was a heady mix of warm sun with a cool breeze and the bikes we hired were surprisingly comfortable even after we had been cycling for over an hour.

This week I had a very pleasant surprise to learn that my blog had been listed as one of the top 5 recommended expat blogs in America by a company called ExpatFocus.com. Yay!http://www.expatfocus.com/c/aid=1971/articles/united-states-usa/usa---five-recommended-expat-blogs/My husband is the first one of the family to have his second birthday in America, so I guess we are hardly newbies now! We have met so many great people in the last year that instead of squeezing everyone around a restaurant table he chose to host a house party with an 80's / 90's fancy dress theme, we hired a DJ and a bar tender with a knack for making particularly strong margaritas, some food platters from the grocery store and enough alcohol to last us until Christmas 2017.It was fun to get all our new friends together in one place and enjoy everyones company all at once, plus as a surprise to my husband I had a birthday cake made for him by a lovely girl who began baking after deciding the shop bought cakes were too sweet. If you live in Austin or the surrounding areas and would like Kat to make your birthday cake please take a look at her new website for contact details: http://www.katsnest.comFor privacy purposes I have erased husband's name and age.